Improvement in railway-signals



W. G. EVANS. Railway-Signals.

' Patented July 8,1879.

W/JTNLESAS'ES INVENTOR I; fltt0rne1/8 y MPETERS. PHOIO LJTHOGRAPHER WASHNaron I) G UNITED STATES PATENT u-i'OFFIGE.

WILLIAM G. EVANS, OF PLEASANTON, KANSAS.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-SIGNALS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 217,355, dated July 8,1879; application filed October 12, 1878.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. EvAN s, of

Pleasanton, in the county of Linn and State of Kansas, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Railroad-Signals; and 1 do herebydeclare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ofthe invention,

which will enable others skilled in the art to? structed according to myinvention. 5

This invention consists in the wedge-shaped form of the casingcontaining the windows, and in the arrangement of the flags, as will behereinafter fully explained.

a is the signal-box, which is made wedgeshaped, as shown, so that whenset with its central line or w,Fig. 1, at right angles to the railwaytrack or line of motion of the locomotive the sides a a will be at anangle other than a right angle to the said track or line of motion.

The windows a a in the sides a a are a plain fiat-surface, and, beingplaced at the angle above explained, the reflection of the light inday-time is away from the line of motion of the locomotive, so thatthere is obviated the difficulty experienced in ordinary day-signals bythe obscuring of the color of the flag by the white light reflected fromthe glass surface into the eye of the engineer.

The lights a a take up about half the space of the sides a a the upperhalf of said sides being made of wood or other suitable material, sothat the flags may be rolled up behind the same and hidden from view.

Within the casing a are placed the vertical guide-rods b b, for thepurpose of preventing anyinterference between the different flags as thelatter are raised or lowered.

c d are the flags, made of loose woven flannel or cloth, suspended onthe rollers c d, and operated by the cords of on the outer side of thecase a. The lower end of each flag is provided with a weight, g, whichcauses it to drop flags c are of ordinary construction, being of samecolor on both sides.

- The red flags d have their inner sides, next the lamp 1', lined withwhite cloth, while the green flag is lined with another shade of green.

I have by experiment found that a red flag lined with'white will show abetter red color, not only by day but by night also, when the color isshown by the lamp 6.

The green flags are lined with a material of their own color, but oflighter shade, because they will thus show a better green light afternight, or when the sun shines on their inner sides; also, thearrangement of a red flag behind the green will show a better signal attimes.

To illustrate, suppose the railway runs north and south and the greenflag be shown to the south. If the sun be shining bright the rays willpass through the flag and a green light will be shown also on the northside of the box.-

To avoid this I drop the red flag, which is sus pended on the same sideof case with the green flag, behind the latter, which obstructs thegreen rays, and there will be shown a clear white light to the north.

By means of the flags and box constructed and arranged as described Ihave furnisheda .device which may be used both for day and nightsignals. By it I can show at the same time, either night or day, onopposite sides, a green and a white, or a green and a red, or green andgreen, or red and red signals, as may be desired.

I am aware that signal-boxes having curved or rounded glass fronts havebeen used; but

these will not accomplish the results gained by my device-namely, thereflection in daytime of all the rays of the sun away from the track andthe eye of the engineer.

Heretofore signal-boxes with glass sides have been unserviceable inday-time.

My device overcomes the difficulties heretofore met with, and I haveprovided a signal equally serviceable in either day or night.

The upper part, a, of the box is closed in by the sides, so that itforms a close chamber, within which are supported the rollers c d. Theflags 0 d are supported on these rollers, and may be drawn up out ofsight when desired.

By this construction and arrangement I am enabled to use one or moreflags of different colors.' All the flags not in use can be drawn upinto the chamber, so that they will give no inconvenience and cause noconfusion of colors.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, 1s-

' 1. In a railway-signal, the box or casing to,

ber, a, as described, and provided with suitable means for supportingand operating the rollers c d, and having in the lower ends of theopposite sides a a the windows a a, inclined to the angle of vision, theflags 0 d, arranged in pairs or series of difl'erent colors on theopposite sides of said box and supported and operated by the rollers 0cl in the chamber a and the vertical guide-rods b, all arranged tooperate substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a railway-signal, the combination, with the box at, having glasswindows a a on its opposite sides, of the flags c d, arranged in pairson opposite sides and next the windows, the outer flag, 0, being made ofgreen cloth,

and the inner flag, 11, being of red cloth and lined on its inner sidewith white cloth, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I affix my signaturein presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM G. EVANS.

Witnesses JOHN E. GRoDE, A. D. HYATT.

